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to figure out exactly where she was. Poor little thing. She had no idea that her mother was so helpless, that a Marine made a better mommy.
    But she’d improve. Looking down into her daughter’s tiny face, Annie promised her that she would learn everything and that she would be the best mom she could possibly be. Maybe Jordan wouldn’t have a father around like the other kids, but she would have a mother who would always be there for her.
    And with that thought firmly in mind, Annie swallowed her pride, looked up at John and said, “Show me again?”
    He smiled at her, and her heart did that strange little blip again. All right, last night she’d put her reaction to him down to the emotion of the moment, her daughter’s birth, the unusual closeness she’d experienced with this man. But now—she couldn’t afford to start having warm, fuzzy feelings for a man who would, no doubt, disappear from her life the minute the storm ended. So she’d better just concentrate on the task at hand and forget about that half dimple in his right cheek.
    “Sure,” he said, splintering her thoughts, for which she was more grateful than he would ever know. John took the halved dish towel, folded it and bent to lift Jordan’s legs. He slid the fabric under the baby’s fanny, then brought the rest of the material through her little legs and around her waist. “See, it’s all in the positioning. Get it square under her little butt, and then keep it taut around her belly when you pin the edges together.”
    “Pins,” Annie muttered, wondering if Lisa had some duct tape somewhere in this cabin. “What if I stick her?”
    He turned his head and looked at her. “You won’t. Just keep your fingers between the diaper and her skin. If you stick anybody, it’ll be yourself.”
    She nodded, watching his big hands move gently, deftly over the baby’s tiny body. When he was finished, he slid those wide palms beneath Jordan, lifted her off the bed and settled her into the crook of Annie’s arm.
    “There,” he said. “All dry. For now,” he added wryly.
    “She is going through a lot of Lisa’s towels,” Annie mused, looking from her daughter’s wide yawn up to John’s blue eyes.
    “At least we’ve got plenty,” he said with a quick glance at the window, where snow was piling up along the edge of the sill. “Looks like we’re going to be here for a couple more days at least.”
    “Won’t you get in trouble?” Annie asked. “You said you’re a Marine. Don’t you have to report in or something?”
    “I’m on leave,” he said, turning back to look at her. “Two more weeks all to myself.”
    “You’re not getting much of a vacation,” Annie saidand silently decided that his eyes weren’t ice blue at all, but the soft blue of a cloudless summer sky.
    “Depends on your point of view,” he said. “From where I’m sitting, it’s not so bad.”
    Yeah, well, from where she was standing, it looked pretty good, too.
    Too good.

Five
    T hree days later the storm had stopped and the sun was shining. John had managed to clear at least part of the driveway, giving him enough room to maneuver his four-wheel-drive monster of a car around from the side of the house. Then he’d headed into the tiny town of Big Bear, where he’d, thank heaven, Annie thought, purchased a supply of disposable diapers and a few other essentials.
    He’d also brought a doctor to examine her and the baby. Once they were both pronounced “fit as a fiddle,” John had taken the man home.
    Now, as she sat across the kitchen table from him, watching him give Jordan a bottle of water, she planted her elbows on the table, propped her chin in her hands and said, “I’ve got to ask.”
    One black eyebrow lifted and he glanced at her. “Ask what?”
    How did he do that, she wondered. How did he manage to look both sexy and tender at the same time? And when were those stray thoughts going to stop shooting across her mind?
    Swallowing hard, she focused on